By — Ivette Feliciano Ivette Feliciano By — Connie Kargbo Connie Kargbo Leave a comment 0comments Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/israel-has-vaccinated-the-most-people-per-capita-against-covid-19-is-it-sustainable Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Transcript Audio As many countries began their COVID-19 vaccination rollouts last month, one country quickly charged ahead of the pack: Israel. The Middle Eastern nation is now the world's top vaccinator per capita, already inoculating more than 1.5 million people, or nearly 20 percent of its total population. But as it faces a growing number of COVID-19 cases, can the country keep up its lead? Ivette Feliciano reports. Read the Full Transcript Hari Sreenivasan: When it comes to vaccinations per capita around the world, the small nation of Israel has taken the lead — inoculating more than 1.5 million people. But can the country keep this pace? Ivette Feliciano has the story. Ivette Feliciano: It's Monday in Tel Aviv and a medical compound setup for COVID-19 vaccinations has hundreds waiting to get their first dose. Dr. Ronni Gamzu: We are doing that in a pace of around 5 to 7,000 a day here in this huge operation. Ivette Feliciano: This pace means more than 19 percent of the population has been vaccinated since mid-December… ten times more than in the U.S. and the most so far in the world.Medical workers and the elderly come first but given the country's relatively liberal approach to giving vaccines, even younger Israelis are waiting in line.The country of about nine million was also quick to sign deals with pharmaceutical companies, covering about 75 percent of its population.And when it comes to delivery, Israel has taken advantage of its small size.Uri Gat-Palash heads the distribution company, SLE. Uri Gat-Palash: We do the division of the Pfizer packs which come in 195 vials, we divide them to smaller packs of 10, 15 and 50 vials so it can be shipped even to very small point of vaccination and by doing so, we avoid unnecessary waste of vaccines. Ivette Feliciano: But the speed of distribution has the country burning through its supply. And a surge in new cases means the goal to get the whole country immunized by spring might be slipping away.Human rights observers have been urging Israel to also provide vaccines to Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip but it's unclear if that will happen.As pressure grows over a dwindling supply of vaccines, the government is once again turning to the negotiating table, this time to get more deliveries sooner. Listen to this Segment Watch Watch the Full Episode PBS NewsHour from Jan 10, 2021 By — Ivette Feliciano Ivette Feliciano Ivette Feliciano shoots, produces and reports on camera for PBS NewsHour Weekend. Before starting with NewsHour in 2013, she worked as a one-person-band correspondent for the News 12 Networks, where she won a New York Press Club Award for her coverage of Super Storm Sandy, which ravaged the East Coast in 2012. Prior to that, Ivette was the Associate Producer of Latin American news for Worldfocus, a nationally televised, daily international news show seen on Public Television. While at Worldfocus, Ivette served as the show’s Field Producer and Reporter for Latin America, covering special reports on the Mexican drug war as well as a 5-part series out of Bolivia, which included an interview with President Evo Morales. In 2010, she co-produced a documentary series on New York’s baseball history that aired on Channel Thirteen. Ivette holds a Master’s degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, where she specialized in broadcast journalism. @IvetteF_News By — Connie Kargbo Connie Kargbo Connie Kargbo has been working in the media field since 2007 producing content for television, radio, and the web. As a field producer at PBS NewsHour Weekend, she is involved in all aspects of the news production process from pitching story ideas to organizing field shoots to scripting feature pieces. Before joining the weekend edition of PBS Newshour, Connie was a Peace Corps volunteer in Thailand where she trained Thai English teachers.